


It's our time now, if you want it to be

by justcametosayhell0



Category: Cricket RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-01
Updated: 2015-10-01
Packaged: 2018-04-24 08:42:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4912798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justcametosayhell0/pseuds/justcametosayhell0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>what happens on tour stays on tour...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

In the end, the reunion isn't as difficult as he thought it might be. Anything can happen when you are riding on a high and anyone can fool themselves into thinking that the impossible could work without anyone getting hurt. They'd learnt that lesson now. He should've seen it coming - honestly, looking back on it, the signs were there - but with the inexperience and naivety that youth carried with it, who could really blame them? It meant nothing...well it hadn't to him, at least.

It wasn't that Joe himself didn't mean something to him, far from it. The young lad had always had a special place in his heart, difficult though that was for him to admit to even himself, let alone anyone else. In all honesty, he blamed himself...he was older, had experienced this...whatever it was, it'd become so hard to define after all these years...before. He knew the risk of getting to attached...Christ, he'd been through situations that he'd rather forget because of that ridiculous emotion. Attachment...or could you really call it that? For how could you be attached to something that was never really there, a hope that you'd built up to fill the empty void of want inside you? 

Yes, that was probably the worst part. What with his memories of being humiliated and dropped in the most inhumane and cruel way, he knew that the worst part wasn't the sheer scorn on the other man's face, or the catcalls and mockery of his teammates which still echoed in his mind today whenever he was having a particularly and day on the field. No the worst part (and the reason the issue was still playing on his mind all these months later, the ONLY reason that this was the case) was the aftermath. All that confusion, angst, longing, hoping, expectation, desperation (any emotion in the book, you name it, he'd felt it) all gone. Just like that. Because in the end, it meant nothing.

So before he entered the Tobacco Dock building alongside Cooky and Stu (and fuck he was so grateful to these two, seeing the look of quiet pride on Cooky's face when he'd lifted that trophy and hearing the emotion in his voice when he'd promised to make this team the best it could be, that quiet yet consistent little voice in his ear having faith in him when even he thought that he had nothing left to give, that was the only reason he was here tonight) his first instinct was to run. A shame really, he'd always though of himself as more of a fight than flight kind of figure but he remembered the look of utter misery in Joe's eyes, that same look that had been in his ten years before, and he just couldn't. There would have been so many better people to try it with...Cooky, for instance, he decided, with a glance to his right, would have had a way with words, a way to let him down gently. And even with Broady, (although he couldn't honestly say he would see that happening)he was certain there would have been an undertone of fun to the whole thing, either side knowing that there was nothing to it. But Joe had just had to go for the one guy who couldn't express his emotions (fuck his heart was so far away from his sleeve he thought it must be buried deep beneath his skin). 

(Although when Joe did come sidling up to the three of them later that evening, he couldn't deny that dread wasn't the only emotion coursing though his body and making his heart beat at what felt like fifty times it's normal rate).

Stu cheers when he sees him, and waves Joe over to their table in the centre of the room. The pair embrace quickly and then break apart laughing a couple of seconds later when it transpires someone stood on the others' foot. (He knew that anything between those to would just be too weird but then again, meeting Joe for the first time he'd written him off as a cheeky young lad who'd be out of the side within a month. How wrong he was...). Cooky strides over to Joe and that embrace lasts much longer until Broady coughs jokingly and Jimmy is treated to Joe's flushed face thrown back in laughter for the second time since he stumbled over (not that he's counting or anything).

'Jimmy,' he gushes drunkenly. 'Long time no see my friend. In fact long time no hear actually...you lost your phone or summat?'

Jimmy freezes. Surely he couldn't mean...by the drunken gaze on Joe's face there's no way he'd remember, he was almost certain...but God if he meant that night...

'Sent you a couple of pics of sunny NY,' Joe chirps on, oblivious to the shadow of relief that passes over Jimmy's face. 'Mind you, sure I was missing out on the all the fun in...sorry where were you again? Disneyland? Looked like party Central judging from the photos.'

Broady cackles in the background and as he does so Joe spins around, smiles apologetically and dashes of in the direction of Alex Hales.

So the crisis had been averted, for now. But fuck, Jimmy thought to himself, this could be one heck of a tour.


	2. Chapter 2

Dubai wakes him on that first morning abnormally early, blinding sunlight streaming through the transparent curtains of his hotel room and settling on the nape of his neck, making the position more and more uncomfortable as he tried to settle back into an easy slumber. After a couple of minutes of trying and failing to shake of the distinct feeling of burn itching up his neck and shoulders, he groaned in defeat and in one fluid motion managed to slide off the side of his bed, landing on top of a pile of covers he'd kicked off last night in a desperate bid to cool down. From this position, he was able to squint out of the glass panels separating him from the city and if looks could kill, the sun would have been sent plunging into instant darkness.

'Transparent curtains,' he mumbled hatefully into the pillow that he was running across his sweaty forehead. 'Who chose transparent curtains.'

Giving up on his unsuccessful attempt to out-glare the radiant sunshine (and left with blurry, bloodshot eyes as a result), Jimmy fumbled for his phone, which lay cast carelessly aside on top of the table in the centre of the hotel room. He swiped open his home screen onto the chat, deciding to find out if anyone else was up (not that he wanted company, it would just make him feel better to know that others were suffering alongside him). When five minutes later the only reply he'd received was a snapchat from Stu showing a close-up of sleeping Finny with trouble sleeping??? as a caption, he sighed in irritation and rested his phone back down on the mantle. Whatever was going on between those two, he had no desire to get invololved. 

The familiar buzz of his ringtone knocked Jimmy out of his miserable thought process, and he leant up to grab the phone, feeling the ache of sunburn accross his back and shoulders as he stretched. What he saw there though made every last bit of pain and exhaustion leave his body instantaneously only to be replaced by alarm bells ringing inside his brain.

From: Joe  
Want company?

Now he was torn. He didn't want to give Joe the wrong impression, didn't want to hurt him again...but was this Joe reaching out to him as a mate? Just a friendly gesture to let him know that nothing had really changed, that they could just go back to being friends and occasional fuck buddies as they had been before. Before emotions had got involved.

Emotions. Jimmy hated them sometimes. Always got in the way of everything.

From: Jimmy  
Yah sure. Up for golf?

Twenty minutes later, Jimmy strode purposefully out of his hotel room and down into the main foyer on the level below. He caught himself sneaking a glance into the musty mirror which adorned the staircase and took the time to fix his hair as he trod heavily down the rickety stairs. His footfall alerted the blonde, who was slumped back on one of the ancient sofas lining the hotel reception, eyes closed and head tilted back, an expression of complete unconcern spread accross his face. But upon spotting Jimmy, Joe jumped up with a sudden burst of energy, his trademark grin spreading from ear to ear as he looked him up and down.

'Morning sunshine,' Joe beamed. 'Ready for our golf date?'

Jimmy forced himself to form a wry smile. Just friends, he reminded himself for the second time that morning. Nothing more.

**Author's Note:**

> so first fic; not really sure where I will go with this but all feedback welcome


End file.
